Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, August 14, 2008

It’s anticipated at that time Steve Young, a former assistant in the Veteran’s Affairs office, will be able to take the position of full-time director. Young currently is overseas serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

FormerHuron CountyVeteran’s Affairs Director Sharon McLeod died last week while under hospice care. McLeod, who was 52, had been the full-time Veteran’s Affairs director since January 2007. Prior to that, she worked in that office part-time since November 2000 (because at that time, there were no full-time positions in that office).

HuronCountycommissioners, during the board’s Tuesday regular meeting, said the county’s Veteran’s Board has discussed the vacancy and feel Young is the best candidate for the job. Until he returns — which is expected to be January 2009 at the earliest — the Veteran’s Board agreed it would be best to appoint Judy Reimann as the office’s interim director.

Since June 2007, Young served as an assistant in the Veteran’s Affairs office until he was deployed Jan. 3 to serve a year in Iraq.

Reimann currently has been serving as an assistant in the county’s Veteran’s Affairs office since June 2007.

“(I) absolutely love it,” she said, adding it’s been great working with the area’s veterans. “ … (It’s) very, very rewarding.”

The Huron County Veteran’s Affairs office provides a variety of services, including coordinating the transportation of veterans to veterans hospitals in Saginaw, Detroit and Ann Arbor. Reimann said past veterans use the office’s van 15 of 20 working days each month to take other veterans to those veterans hospitals around the state.

“We also help veterans sign up for health benefits, and if they have something that pertains to an injury that began while they were in the service, we help them file papers for compensation and/or pension,” Reimann explained.

She said the need to assist veterans who need health benefits is great.

“We’ve had several come in,” Reimann said, noting many are veterans who didn’t need health benefits from the government because they previously had other insurance with their past-employers. But now as many corporations and businesses are struggling to pay for retiree health care, some who promised life-time retirement health care benefits can’t afford it, and have cut back and/or discontinued offering coverage.

“Two of the veterans who (recently) came in worked for GM (General Motors), and thought they had health benefits for life,” she said. “But it turned out they didn’t.”

Reimann said she anticipates seeing more come to her office who will need government benefits they never needed before.

Another service the county’s Veteran’s Affairs office provides is obtaining grave markers, she said.

“Anyone who served in the service is entitled to a marker on their grave, and they’re obtained through this office,” Reimann said.

The office, through service organizations, also is responsible for placing flags on veterans’ graves in area cemeteries every Memorial Day, she said.

“Last year, we placed approximately 4,000 in the Huron County cemeteries,” Reimann said. “Isn’t that amazing? It is to me.”

It’s services like these that make the Veteran’s Affairs office so important to Huron County, she said.

“It’s something we definitely want to keep going,” Reimann said, noting it also was McLeod’s desire to see the office continue. “ … And I don’t want it closed because of all the good work (Sharon) has done.”

HuronCountycommissioners didn’t vote on an appointment Tuesday because the board hasn’t received a formal recommendation from the Veteran’s Board at this time.

Commissioner Chairman Robert Haldane said appointing someone to fill McLeod’s vacancy is a big priority, however, commissioners can’t vote on the matter until a recommendation is given by the Veteran’s Board.

He said the office is important to the county and stressed it’s not closing and there will be someone there to service veterans.

“(Reimann) can fill the needs of this office because she has worked with (McLeod) very closely … she’s running a very efficient office … (and) she’s very knowledgeable of all the procedures the vets have to go through to get whatever services they need — whether it’s prescriptions or other medical help,” Haldane said.

Commissioner Dave Peruski, who heads the Personnel Committee, said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with appointing Reimann as an interim Veteran’s Affairs director. He said his committee already has met to discuss the issue and hopes to have a resolution prepared for a vote during the board’s next regular meeting, which is slated for Aug. 26.

Prior to that date, commissioners will have a Meeting of the Whole at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20.